|
Join Our List
|
 |
|
In This Issue
|
|
Josh Jacobson's Musings
Upcoming Concerts
Welcome New Members
Baruch Dayan Ha'Emet: Phil Goldman
Zamir Offers Free Concert Tickets to Low-Income Families
Summer Roundup
|
|
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!
|
|
We are delighted to welcome the following singers to our 2017-18 roster:
Jessica Woolf and Miriam Silva, sopranos;
Heather Viola, soprano, returning after several years' absence;
Lisa Doob, soprano, after one semester's absence;
Luca Antonucci, bass, new member (conducting intern);
Hal Katzman, tenor, after one year's absence.
Auditions, from left: Josh Jacobson, Steve Ebstein, Devin Lawrence, Johanna Ehrmann.
Photo by Rachel Miller
|
|
BARUCH DAYAN HA'EMET: PHIL GOLDMAN
|
The Zamir community mourns the loss of our dear friend Phil Goldman
z'l,
who passed away on September 6 at the age of 76, at his home in Newton, surrounded by his family. In addition to his wife of 54 years and Zamir singer, Sue, he is survived by his three daughters and sons-in-law, his grandchildren, and his brother, Mark. A large group of Zamir singers, past and present, was honored to sing at his memorial service on September 8 in Brookline.
 |
|
|
Phil Goldman, z'l
|
At the first rehearsal of the season, Josh Jacobson spoke eloquently about Phil:
"God promised Abraham that his descendants would be numerous as the stars in the sky. Well, one of those stars is no longer shining. Phil Goldman was in Zamir for 21 years. He was a stalwart member of the bass section (we could always count on Phil to hit the low E and D) and served several years admirably as chairman of our board of directors. Phil had a wonderful, dry sense of humor, as anyone who witnessed his alter ego, "Frankie, the Lounge Lizard," will attest.
Phil exemplified the Jewish concept of
sever panim yafot
(a pleasant countenance): he would greet you with a broad smile on his face, reflecting how much he loved life. And Phil was lovingly devoted to his high school sweetheart, Sue, also a longtime Zamir singer.
There are stars up above, so far away we see their light only long after the star itself is gone. And so it is with people that we've loved. Their memories keep shining ever brightly, though their time with us is done. But the stars that light up the darkest night, these are the lights that guide us. As we live our days, these are the ways we remember them.
--Hannah Senesh
|
|
HOT OFF THE PRESS
|
|
Zamir Offers Free Concert Admission to Low-Income Families
Zamir joins the Mass Cultural Council and the Baker-Polito administration's
EBT Card to Culture,
the most comprehensive effort of its kind in the nation to open doors to arts and cultural experiences for low-income families. The EBT Card to Culture provides free or discounted admission to more than 100 nonprofit arts, history, and science venues across Massachusetts, including Zamir-sponsored concerts. (For a complete listing, click here.)
The Mass. Executive Office of Health and Human Services
and the
Dept. of Transitional Assistance (DTA)
are already promoting these cultural opportunities to the one in eight Massachusetts residents who are served by DTA. The approach has seen remarkable success at institutions that have employed it: Boston's Museum of Science, for example, has seen participation in its EBT card discounts rise steadily from a few hundred to more than 13,000 visitors annually in less than five years. EBT card holders who are interested in attending Zamir concerts should contact
manager@zamir.org.
|
|
|
Josh Jacobson Honored at NAJCF
On Sunday, July 16, Zamir continued its long tradition of headlining the opening-night concert at the
North American Jewish Choral Festival
in Kerhonkson, NY. The program included works by Rossi, Sargon, Bernstein, and Lewandowski, as well as a reprise of June's premiere of Robert Snyder's "Happy Is the Man," a jazzy setting of Psalm 1.
|
|
|
|
Mati Lazar and Josh Jacobson
Photo by Jim Ball
|
|
This year,
Matthew Lazar,
the festival's director and founder of the Zamir Chorale in New York, introduced the evening with a lovely tribute:
"One of the things that the festival is famous for is to disprove the notion that Jewish music is not first rate. This is a disease that infected most colleges, most universities, most professional music-making organizations who were reduced to "Hava Nagila" (and not the Dani Faktori arrangement), and other lower forms of music making, shall we say. So for us, it's always important to strive to have first-rate Jewish music performed in a first-rate music way.
"And that's why I'm always thrilled to have as our opening act, to set the tone for the North American Jewish Choral Festival, the Zamir Chorale of Boston, which always sets that standard . . . always with first-rate performances, creative programming, and dedication to our musical heritage, and only possible because of their founding director, Joshua Jacobson, who created in Boston this great idea of the Zamir Chorale of Boston."
A few days later, Josh, along with Eleanor Epstein of Zemer Chai, in Washington, D.C, was honored by the Zamir Choral Foundation with the Hallel v'Zimrah Award for a "lifetime of dedication and contributions to Jewish choral music and the Jewish choral tradition."
|
|
|
Shana Tova! A happy, healthy, and sweet new year to you and your family. As you take time to celebrate the High Holidays and usher in 5778, be sure to catch up on the latest Zamir news and mark your calendars to join us at a host of upcoming local concerts. In this issue, Josh Jacobson muses on the revival of "majestic" synagogue music and offers a season preview. We welcome new members and say goodbye to our dear friend, Phil Goldman z'l. We hope to see you soon!
|
|
JOSH JACOBSON'S MUSINGS
|
|
In each issue of E-Notes, Artistic Director Joshua Jacobson offers his unique insights and experiences as a world-renowned scholar, composer, conductor, and influential teacher of Jewish music.
|
|
|
Photo by Richard McNight
|
What makes music great? What makes music sacred? What makes music popular? This fall, Zamir will be investigating these issues through performances of some of the greatest and most popular synagogue music of the 19th century, music that is still being sung after more than a century and a half.
Some contemporary American synagogues have rejected the notion of "majesty" in their musical offerings in favor of a more casual guitar-led sing-along. It is rare these days to hear the liturgy interpreted artistically by a cantor and/or a choir. Zamir opens a nostalgia-tinted window to re-introduce our audiences to music of a different liturgical culture, music of a distant time and place, music that has not lost its power to inspire and delight.
|
Zamir opens a nostalgia-tinted window to re-introduce our audiences to music of a different liturgical culture, music of a distant time and place...
|
What is a masterwork? What is a classic? A work of art is great if it has sufficient quality that it endures. Repeated listening (or reading or viewing) doesn't tire us or bore us. We want to go back to this play, painting, symphony again and again because each time we discover something new. It never ceases to inspire us.
What makes music sacred? Is it merely the fact that it is used in a liturgical service? What of the many secular (or secular-style) melodies that we now use to sing our sacred texts? Or are there musical styles that occupy a place apart from the mundane? Are there musics that, even without lyrics, seem to transport us to a metaphysical zone of meditation?
And what makes music popular? Is it determined simply by statistics--what percentage of the population "likes" a particular song? Of course, commercial media exert a huge influence on that question. Or is there something that makes a song inherently and immediately attractive, the musical equivalent of sugar and salt?
On November 6
(see ad below),
|
|
|
Louis Lewandowski
|
we will continue our revival of majestic 19th-century synagogue music with music that is (or was) popular, sacred, and/or masterfully great. Our program includes music by Louis Lewandowski, written for his choir to perform at the Friday evening service in Berlin--music that became so popular that worshippers on both sides of the Atlantic appropriated the melodies for their own congregational singing. We will present the origins of the tunes for "Adon Olam" and "Eyn Keloheynu," which are still popular today. We'll also perform compositions that were beloved in their time in the synagogues of Vienna, London, Paris, and Odessa--magnificent and sensitive settings of the Hebrew liturgical texts. Is there still room for this music in contemporary American synagogues? Or shall we enjoy it only in sacred concerts? Come and experience these majestic masterworks in all their splendor--and you decide.
|
|
UPCOMING CONCERTS
|
|
Sunday, October 29, 2017, 4:00 pm, Temple Ohabei Shalom, 1187 Beacon St, Brookline:
Zamir is delighted to join the congregation of Temple Ohabei Shalom as part of their 175th anniversary festivities, "From Jamaica to Judaica," during the last weekend in October. The program will include works from the liturgical, modern, Israeli, and jazz repertoire and feature composers such as Salamone Rossi and Naomi Shemer. Jeremiah Klarman and Robert Snyder will be on hand to accompany their recently commissioned compositions. Also featured will be Jacobson's setting of the Havdalah, which was premiered at the Temple in 1970 in Zamir's first-ever public performance. The Temple's executive director, Naomi Gurt Lind, a Zamir soprano, will perform several solos. Tickets:
https://www.ohabei.org/
Monday, November 6, 7:30 pm, Temple Beth Elohim, 10 Bethel Rd, Wellesley:
"Masterworks of Majesty." See "Musings," above for program details and below for registration information. Free admission.
The Divine Majesty Series is made possible by an anonymous underwriter in memory of Mary Wolfman Epstein and Cantor Barney Mould.
Sunday, December 3, 4:00 pm, Temple Isaiah, 55 Lincoln St, Lexington:
Zamir is looking forward to returning
to Temple Isaiah to perform a concert of our wide-ranging repertoire, featuring the vocal talents of Cantor Lisa Doob. The program will end with a set of songs for the upcoming Hanukkah holiday. Tickets:
http://www.templeisaiah.net/
Sunday, December 10, 4:00 pm: "A Light Through the Ages," Hanukkah concert at Central Reform Temple, 15 Newbury St, Boston.
Zamir returns for this special annual celebration of Hanukkah. The Chorale will perform in the cantata "A Light Through the Ages," text by Rabbi Howard A. Berman, which weaves a chronicle of the celebration of the holiday in many times and places over the centuries. Free and open to the public. For details and tickets, click
here.
Sunday, December 24, 7:30 pm, Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward St, Newton: "Hanukkah Happens."
After a year's hiatus, Zamir returns to Emanuel for its traditional holiday concert, this year a collaboration between Zamir and the well-known Jewish-rock band Safam:
Dan Funk, Joel Sussman, Robbie Solomon, and Alan Nelson. The band
originally emerged from Zamir and gave its first performance as part of a Zamir concert in December 1974. The program will also feature Cantor Elias Rosemberg and Rav-Hazzan Aliza Berger.
Tickets: Temple Emanuel
Save the Dates! Wednesday, May 23, and Thursday, May 24, 2018, 7:30 pm: "Zamir Goes Baroque," at Slosberg Recital Hall, Brandeis University, South St, Waltham.
Zamir and friends will explore rarely heard Jewish polyphony from the 17th and early 18th centuries: synagogue motets (and a few dances and love songs) by Salamone Rossi Hebreo of Mantua;
Cantata ebraica by Carlo Grossi of Venice; Louis Saladin's
Canticum Hebraicum, written for the Provençal Jewish community; excerpts from Giuseppe Lidarti's oratorio
Ester,
composed in Hebrew for the Jewish community in Amsterdam; and more. This music is not only fascinating historically, it is beautiful and delightful! Zamir will be joined by choreographer Ken Pierce and an awesome instrumental ensemble, led by renowned violinist Daniel Stepner.
|
|
REGISTER NOW FOR "MASTERWORKS OF MAJESTY"
|
|
|
The Zamir Chorale of Boston presents
 Masterworks of Majesty
part of the Divine Majesty Series*
Mon., November 6, 2017, 7:30 pm
Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley
Joshua R. Jacobson, Artistic Director
What makes music great? What makes music sacred? What makes music popular? We will be investigating these issues through performance of some of the greatest and most popular synagogue music of the 19th century, music that is still being sung after more than 150 years.
Free admission; Registration required.
*The Divine Majesty Series is made possible by an anonymous underwriter in memory of Mary Wolfman Epstein and
Cantor Barney Mould.
|
| KEEP IN TOUCH! |
|
As always, let us know what you're up to--we love hearing from our friends near and far. Have a peaceful, healthy, and happy new year!
Barbara Gaffin Deborah Sosin
Managing Director Editor, E-Notes
|
|
| |
|
